


Open Book

by AlyssAlenko



Series: Stolen Moments for Shoker [6]
Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Guilt, Implied Relationships, Implied Sexual Content, Interrupted, Love, Mild Language, Naked Cuddling, Rekindling a flame, Relief, Reminiscing, Survivor Guilt, Techie, Through the Years, Trust, ship cancer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 10:32:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13973196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyssAlenko/pseuds/AlyssAlenko
Summary: Exploring their relationship at the beginning of Mass Effect two, has Joker grappling with all his feelings, a little nagging voice saying he should have checked more thoroughly that it was, in fact, his Shepard...the same one he'd slept with the night before Ilos, and the one he'd been planning forever with before she got spaced.





	Open Book

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Forlorn_Melody](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forlorn_Melody/gifts).



Abigail found him watching her carefully as she pulled her blonde hair up into a ponytail, scrutinizing her...maybe something he should have done before coaxing her to have sex in his chair. People didn’t come back from the dead, not usually, but she was one hell of a soldier, and the galaxy was a poorer without her. Together they’d taken big steps--meeting each other’s families, and then she’d gotten spaced, slamming the breaks on whatever plans they’d had and it was all his fault...it was something they couldn’t just step back from. There were things he needed to know. Joker’s eyes followed her movements as she collected their clothes and dropped them in a heap by his chair, so far her body--aside from the cracked red scars in her skin, biotics and her attitude were as familiar as if he’d just seen her yesterday instead of two years, three months and seventeen days ago, and he was sure Cerberus had performed their own checks to make sure her mind was in tact. But he needed to know for sure.

He’d told her he was sure after they kissed in the docking bay--but a tiny voice at the back of his mind was nagging him to be absolutely certain, that if he wasn’t correct, he’d just had sex with someone who wasn’t _his_ Abigail.

“Go ahead.”

Joker’s eyes met hers, startled as she climbed onto his lap and curled into his chest, amusement lurking behind her blue eyes.

“What?”

“Ask me all those questions you’re dying to ask, to make sure I’m really me--though why you didn’t do it before I kissed you, stole your hat, and rode you into your chair can be questioned.” She laughed, the sound stirring him up--she sounded just like herself. “Make them as personal as you like; for you, Jeff, I’m an open book.”

“The first time you called me by my real name.”

“Before or after you knew who I really was? Because Abigail Adams  _ only _ knew you as Jeff Moreau.” She teased, a knowing smile forming on his lips. “But for Abigail Shepard, it was after I’d kissed you in the cockpit when we’d stolen the Normandy to head to Ilos; you’d come to my room to rock my world, and I’d ripped your shirt apart at the seams in my impatience to get you naked...you seemed content to take your time, but I wasn’t having it. We’d waited long enough. Did you know I wanted to tell my mom you were my pilot who fucked the stress out of me on a near daily basis after that? But it didn’t feel like something one should say to their mother...”

Joker snorted, wrapping his arms around her and tugging her close; they really should get dressed, but he needed to have her this close. He didn’t need to ask anymore, her answer holding every detail he needed, the little nagging part of his brain, silent as she nuzzled her face into his neck, Joker inhaling the familiar scent of her hair. He fought the urge to release it from the ponytail she’d so carefully crafted, and break in his chair a little more. Two years was a long time, and while he wanted to make up for lost time, just cuddling with her in his chair was relaxing and reassuring--he'd wanted to believe; they'd been planning forever before the Collector attack. He didn’t get why she hadn’t pushed the issue of her death, brushing it aside like everything was fine...but it wasn’t fine; now and forever he had to live with the fact that he’d caused her death, his inaction and trying to save the Normandy had gotten her killed. He had to watch her suffocate in space, alone, and know that he’d been the reason her light was extinguished, and that was going to haunt him.

She ran a gentle hand through his beard, nails softly scraping the skin underneath and drawing a sigh from him, as she leaned forward and kissed him softly, before pulling up her omnitool, opening a manual on their new ship, both of them reading about the AI housed within. How was it possible she was  _ still _ so into ships? One would think that dying in space would’ve dulled her interest, but no, her crystal blue eyes shone with unbridled enthusiasm as they scrolled through the lines of tech and code flitting across the orange screen. Some things never changed, and Joker wouldn’t have it any other way...until a blue orb appeared in front of them: the aforementioned AI, EDI, Abigail grabbing his shirt from the floor and using it to shield herself from the AI, even if it was far too late, considering. The old Normandy had gotten along fine with just a VI, this new piece like ship cancer.

“Shit!” Abigail muttered under her breath, tucking his shirt around her body.  


“Commander, I have locked the door to the cockpit, until you instruct me further.” EDI informed them.  


She sighed, twirling a blonde ringlet curl around her finger. "Um...Thank you..."


End file.
